George Monbiot reacts to shocking piglet abuse – “This is state-enabled cruelty!”
Writer and environmental campaigner George Monbiot has condemned the “utterly reprehensible” treatment of piglets at a Cranswick-owned farm, after watching newly released undercover footage aired in the Mail on Sunday. “Piglets are slammed against concrete and left gasping for air — it is nothing short of state-enabled cruelty,” said Monbiot. “We’ve been sold the myth of high-welfare British farming for too long.”
The secret footage, filmed inside Northmoor Farm in Lincolnshire by Animal Justice Project, reveals repeated illegal killings of piglets using blunt force trauma—a method banned in 2022 under UK law. Some piglets were discarded still alive, visibly breathing and suffering. The site, which holds around 6,000 pigs, is operated by Elsham Linc, part of Cranswick plc—Britain’s largest pig producer and a supplier to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda.
Following the exposé, more than £250 million was wiped from Cranswick’s market value, and four major supermarkets suspended supplies from the farm.
A formal legal complaint has been submitted to Trading Standards by barrister Ayesha Smart, citing multiple breaches of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK).
